Warrior Pilgrimage

Featured in www.pinoyapache.blogspot.com on July 16, 2009

AFTER MY INITIATION with extreme adventure at the now-legendary trek of the Cebu Mountaineering Society on the trails of Mount Pangasugan in Baybay, Leyte in August 1992 I began to feel the inadequacy of my cheap converted day pack. It was just too small for my frame, too frail for my speed and too tight on storage space. Whereas, at that time, my fellow mountaineers carried on their backs bigger backpacks suited for this outdoor sport.

Common among them is the Habagat Venado II which has three compression straps on each side and an adjustable top cover and insures eighty liters of storage space. I liked this sack from all the rest because of its simplicity and tri-color combinations dominated by black. They were, at that time, cutting edge. And they were very sturdy. As far as I can remember Bebut Estillore and Dennis Legaspi carried Venados on their backs at Pangasugan but Patrick Young owned the loudest color – fuschia!

I get to own a Venado when Lilibeth Initan decided to sell hers for 900 pesos in December 1992. She snared my Venado as a door prize courtesy of the Habagat Outdoor Shop and tested this for the first time during the MFPI Mid-Year Climb in Silay City, Negros Occidental in October 1992. She thought it was just too big and too heavy for her so she decided to dispose of this and I was able to get hold of it only after a drinking ceremony...READ MORE (Press CTRL+ mouse click)